Wing Excitement

Continuing our gun dog class and working on finding a line.  Zumi already knows a look cue from her obedience training but I hadn't quite gotten to really teaching the concept like I will need it for the obedience glove exercise.  The look is solid, the actual send out  if there is more than one option not so much.  Kinda the same issue on the go out exercise to a lesser extent.

So I started working on the directed retrieve, or baby lining, with a dokken and a toy.  Hard!  But look how cute she is now at bringing the dokken to my side!

I also knew that training a sport where the dog has such strong natural instincts are much harder to do positively.  And I discovered my first glimpse into this concept when I bought some wings attached to a bumper.  Zumi's first experience involved quivering and in ability to take any treats when I presented it to her for hold training.  I kept it in my hand and trained exclusively with praise for just biting it, taking it away from her before she could anything else.  A very short session to prevent her from becoming too over stimulated.  Thankfully the 2nd session was already much improved and Zumi was able to think and take treats.  I did several real holds of the bumper/wing.  We will be progressing slowly before adding in more arousal.  I can only imagine the baby steps required when we get to an actual bird.